Tesla and Elon Musk’s moment of truth with first mass-market car

For Dom Larose, there was an obvious next step to shrinking his carbon footprint after he had switched his home in the UK to a renewable source of electricity: buying an electric car. When the Vodafone sales executive first made the move four years ago, however, it did not come cheap. Prices for the Tesla Model S, the car he bought, start at £62,000.

“You drive into the car park at work — the Audis and BMWs — it’s something different,” he says. And, like many Tesla fans, he admits to being inspired by the Californian carmaker’s irrepressible chief executive: Elon Musk “is a bit of a risk-taker, putting his money where his mouth is”.

Mr Musk’s army of fans is marching again. Mr Larose was one of thousands to register their interest last year in buying the forthcoming Model 3.

Mike Rawson

Mike Rawson has recently re-awoken a long-standing interest in robots and our automated future.
He lives in London with a single android - a temperamental vacuum cleaner - but is looking forward to getting more cyborgs soon.